steven popkes - news

03/05/2017: Each year there is a new Best American Mystery Stories edited by Otto Penzler plus an additional author. I've been approached about including The Sweet Warm Earth. I'm pretty excited about this. However, though I've been approached, consented and submitted my bio and notes on the story, no contract has yet been forthcoming. So we will see.

08/15/2016: My story, The Sweet Warm Earth, is in the September/October issue of F&SF. Here is F&SF's official site for that issue.

03/27/2013: Finally. On Spec has finally published 10 Things I Know About Jesus. The designation is "#091 - Winter 2012/2013 vol 24 no 4" when the current link changes.

02/14/2013: Very good news. Both Breathe and Sudden, Broken and Unexpected made the 2012 Locus recommended reading list. See it here for yourself. Also, I'll be at Boskone this weekend.

11/13/2012: Breathe is now on the stands in F&SF. A couple of good reviews here and here. Also, Sudden, Broken and Unexpected got a couple of nice reviews here and here.

11/2/2012: Two new items of interest. First, my novella Sudden, Broken and Unexpected is on the stands now. I even made the cover. My story Breathe will be in the very next issue of F&SF. I'll put it up when it is available.

8/30/2012: Once a year whether I need it or not.

My novella Sudden, Broken and Unexpected is scheduled to be in the upcoming December issue of Asimov's.

My story Breathe will be in the November-December issue of F&SF. That will become available in October.

More as more becomes known.

09/12/2011: It's been over a year since I updated this page. So, I'll update it now.

07/01/2011: Jackie's Boy appears in the Dozois Best of collection. See here.

06/18/2010: Gordon (F&SF) bought Agent of Change (The Story Previously Known as Leviathan.) I'm glad it found a home.

04/15/2010: I didn't manage to get the Asimov's cover up when Jackie's Boy was published. It went by quickly. But here it is. Also, Gordon of F&SF sent me a copy of the cover where The Crocodiles is coming up. Here they both are.

03/16/2010: I haven't updated the news in a bit. There's a bunch going on.

First, Asimov's SF is publishing my story Jackie's Boy next month. Go out an buy it. Hot on its heels, F&SF is publishing The Crocodiles in June. I'll put up covers, etc., as they become available. Also, John Joseph Adams bout The Crocodiles for his anthology Livind Dead 2.

This Thursday, 3/18/2010, I'll be on Arlington Public Television as part of a panel on Science Fiction in New England. 6PM to 9PM, EST. Be there or be square. No streaming video of which I'm aware.

I've also joined the Book View Cafe. It's an artists cooperative publishing effort. My bookshelf is here. Two stories have gone up so far: Tom Kelley's Ghost and Doctor Couney's Island. I blog there every other week but I cross post the blogs so that what appears on the BVC blog site also appears on my regular blog site. Currently, my stories and blog entry go up every other week. My next blog entry will be this coming Sunday (3/21) and the next story, Holding Pattern, will go up the following Monday (3/22).

This year marks the sesquicentennial of the publication of The Origin of Species and the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth. Considering the importance of the scientific idea, there has been surprisingly little great sf inspired by it. We wonder whether, in fact, if the theory has been too good, too unassailable and too full of explanatory power, to leave the wiggle room where speculative minds can play in. After all, physics not only have FTL and time travel, but mechanisms like wormholes that might conceivably make them possible. What are their equivalents in evolutionary theory, if any?

02/11/2009: Galleys submitted. I've been told "Two Boys" will be in the August issue.

09/25/2008: Sold "Two Boys" to Asimov's. This will be nice. Not only is it nice to see the story sold but it's the first time in Asimov's for a long time. Thanks, Sheila!

08/18/2008: Kathryn Cramer has made a list of writers who "you might think had won Hugos, or perhaps ought to have won a Hugo or two, or are just plain pretty good writers —— but haven't won a Hugo" here. Heck, I'll take it.

07/13/2008: I'll be at Readercon this year. Readercon starts this week. My schedule will be:

Saturday 2:00 PM, Salon G: Panel The Fiction of Daniel Galouye, Current Cordwainer Smith Award Winner.
Don D'Ammassa, Andy Duncan, Steven Popkes, Gordon Van Gelder
Sunday 11:00 AM, ME/ CT: Panel The Fermi Paradox Paradox. Michael A. Burstein, Jeff Hecht (L), Steven Popkes, Robert J. Sawyer, Ian Randal Strock The Fermi Paradox--the absence of any evidence of extraterrestrial
civilization despite the huge size and age of the universe--seems like
it should be the basis for much hard sf. The paradox has numerous
solutions (e.g., that nearly all civilizations quickly leave this
reality and go somewhere else, or they destroy themselves as quickly,
or they're consciously hiding from us), and all the solutions seem to
be storyable. What sf writers have explored the paradox, and why are
there so few of them? Is it because the vision of a galaxy essentially
devoid of extraterrestrial intelligence is just a downer?